Split Tunnel

[EODCrafter 181]

How do I Split Tunnel Emby-Server on Ubuntu 20.04? I have it set up but can't access my server outside the LAN Network. I have used

/opt/emby-server/bin/emby-server

Is this not the path to emby-server?

[Luke 42078]

Some comments on split tunneling here:

Regarding the path, the top of the server log file will list the application path.

[Carlo 4561]

@EODCrafter How you setup split tunneling is going to depend on the service provider and what software you actually used on Ubuntu to create the VPN.  Are you using software they gave you or did you perhaps use OpenVPN, IPSEC, Wire Guard?

Is the goal to run everything but Emby Server through the VPN?

Another possible way and often better approach might be to run Emby Server on the bare-metal Linux but run everything else in a container or VM on the same machine.  You can then setup the VPN in the container/VM. The advantage to this is that it makes it easy to setup the environment for these other programs and then make a copy of it for safe keeping.  Then if you test software, do other things or just want to clean house you blow it away, make a copy of the backup image and spin it up for a perfect running new VM.

Another way this can be done usually pretty easily depending on the software you're using is change the default routing of the of VPN client if it supports SOCKS5 protocol.  OpenVPN does if you're using that.  Then you go into each software you want to use the VPN and change it's proxy value.  Not all programs support this out of the box, but if you're using programs to "enhance" your collection size I'm bettering they do.  So you could check to see if the programs support SOCKS5 first and see if that's a viable option.

Edited December 16, 2021 by cayars

[EODCrafter 181]

2 hours ago, cayars said:

@EODCrafter How you setup split tunneling is going to depend on the service provider and what software you actually used on Ubuntu to create the VPN.  Are you using software they gave you or did you perhaps use OpenVPN, IPSEC, Wire Guard?

Is the goal to run everything but Emby Server through the VPN?

Another possible way and often better approach might be to run Emby Server on the bare-metal Linux but run everything else in a container or VM on the same machine.  You can then setup the VPN in the container/VM. The advantage to this is that it makes it easy to setup the environment for these other programs and then make a copy of it for safe keeping.  Then if you test software, do other things or just want to clean house you blow it away, make a copy of the backup image and spin it up for a perfect running new VM.

Another way this can be done usually pretty easily depending on the software you're using is change the default routing of the of VPN client if it supports SOCKS5 protocol.  OpenVPN does if you're using that.  Then you go into each software you want to use the VPN and change it's proxy value.  Not all programs support this out of the box, but if you're using programs to "enhance" your collection size I'm bettering they do.  So you could check to see if the programs support SOCKS5 first and see if that's a viable option.

It's the PIA install script VIA OpenVPN Protocol. My Goal is to ocassionally use the VPN on the Desktop to protect some "Downloading" and "Browsing". Yes, I have the Container VPN setup in Docker which permanently protects my TV Proxy, so that is not a issue.

 

I just occasionally need to flip on a VPN on the desktop and not interfere with Emby-Server running "Bare-Metal" on the Ubuntu System.

[EODCrafter 181]

7 hours ago, Luke said:

Some comments on split tunneling here:

Regarding the path, the top of the server log file will list the application path.

The Log shows this.....

2021-12-16 00:00:00.004 Info App: Application version: 4.6.7.0
2021-12-16 00:00:00.005 Info App: Emby
	Command line: /opt/emby-server/system/EmbyServer.dll -programdata /var/lib/emby -ffdetect /opt/emby-server/bin/ffdetect -ffmpeg /opt/emby-server/bin/ffmpeg -ffprobe /opt/emby-server/bin/ffprobe -restartexitcode 3 -updatepackage emby-server-deb_{version}_amd64.deb
	Operating system: Linux version 5.11.0-41-generic (buildd@lgw01-amd64-005) (gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04) 9.3.0, GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Ubuntu) 2.34) #45~20.04.1
	Framework: .NET Core 3.1.21
	OS/Process: x64/x64
	Runtime: opt/emby-server/system/System.Private.CoreLib.dll
	Processor count: 4
	Data path: /var/lib/emby
	Application path: /opt/emby-server/system

I will verify that is what the Split tunnel is bypassing again. NOTE: Yes, that is the correct file Path.

Edited December 16, 2021 by EODCrafter

[EODCrafter 181]

PERFECT!!!! The mistake I made was not restarting the Emby-Server and only restarting the PIA App!

[Carlo 4561]

OK I was going to say this is pretty easy to do with PIA.

Glad you got it working!

Depending on your computer, I would think about or try setting up a VM.  A headless Linux server install running in a VM in hyper-v on windows would make this a lot easier to use and would only need 1 GB of memory.

You could also do this another way but similar on Windows 10+ by installing WSL 2 backend. It's made to allow you to run docker and Linux based docker instances on windows but even if you have no interest in the docker part it integrate Linux right into Windows.  https://docs.docker.com/desktop/windows/install/#system-requirements

Check out the Windows app store "linux developer tools" and you will see free Linux distros meant for installing right into Windows.
GIMP running on Windows Desktop

Audacity minutes after doing a "sudo apt-get install" from a PowerShell prompt. Yep from PowerShell.
It's so cool to be able to use Linux command in windows now!

The cool part about this is that even though I now have use of these programs on the Windows desktop they run in their own VM like container where a VPN could run affecting only those programs.

Pretty close to being an ultimate desktop this way as you get the best of both worlds blended together.  It's only going to get better as well.  WSL2 was a major improvement and the next version will likely blur the lines even more.  Memory foot print is pretty small as well.

Just thought I'd mention that in case you've never seen or heard of WSL before.